Mostly Economics

Central bank digital currencies are currently being considered by many central banks around the world. This column advocates the introduction of an Asian digital common currency as a multilateral synthetic currency comparable to the euro. It argues that the benefits it would bring – such as a deepening cooperation within multilateral frameworks and the protection of the rights of small and medium-sized countries – are greater than the disadvantages of inefficiencies in multilateral frameworks. 

Some bit of history:

East Asia has a history of common currencies. One example is the wide circulation of Chinese coins throughout East Asia during the Middle Ages. At that time, trade in the sea flourished around China. Trade links strengthened, and the Chinese currency was used as a currency for trade. While the strength of the trade links at that time are comparable to today’s trade links and supply chains in East Asia, the use of Chinese money was much more widespread then. In Japan, the issuance of its own currency had been suspended for a long time, and Chinese money was distributed as a national currency instead. Chinese money used for trade transactions was further also credited as a currency in domestic transactions all over East Asia. The widespread use of Chinese currency at the time was mostly driven by China’s economic power, and the establishment of rules by traders rather than state power contributed greatly to the circulation of currencies (Figure 1).

These historical developments are also reflected in today’s currency units. If the current Japanese currency unit is expressed in the old Chinese character, it is yen (圓). The Chinese characters of China’s yuan and Korean won are the same (圓).The Hong Kong dollar and the Taiwanese dollar also use the same Chinese characters(圓). Hence, while East Asia is facing a variety of political difficulties today, it shares the historical experience of a common currency. 

Hmm..